New oilsands mine gets conditional approval
Posted Jan 27, 2011 9:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Calgary-based Joint Review Panel has conditionally approved an open-pit oilsands mine project 70 km north of Fort McMurray.
The approval allows Total E&P Canada to build and operate the Joslyn North Oilsands Mine and Bitumen Extracation Plant.
The project has drawn much criticism from environmental groups.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema tells 660News, they are disappointed with the decision.
“Well, it’s absolutely attrocious. We have a government, both at a provincial and federal level that have admitted that they are getting inadequate information when it comes to the impacts that the tar sands is having on the water, on the air, on the land, and yet they’re approving a gigantic, new tar sands mine and adding to the damage.”
The panel has placed 20 environmental and technical conditions on the project, including tailings and reclamations management.
Total must follow stringent requirements, like making sure the mine has no adverse effect on wildlife or water quality.
Hudema says that’s not possible.
“What we’re talking about is a gigantic, new open put tar sands mine, that would create an entirely new toxic tailing lake at the very time where Premier [Ed] Stelmach has promised to eliminate tailings lakes.”
Part of the conditional approval is that the mine must meet the stringent new requirements for tailings management.
The mine could begin operating as soon as 2017.
